Now this is a resignation letter. Extra good-karma points for calling Colin Powell (the writer’s about-to-be-former boss) on whoring himself on behalf of this exceedingly dangerous and corrupt administration.

More spam amusement (yes, it is Clean The Inbox Day as a matter of fact), this from a disclaimer before some crazier-than-usual noodlings:

Of course there will be those who will accuse me of “spamming”. Such
an accusation does not surprise me as it comes from the spiritual
force of evil. As a matter of fact, how can one accuse
of “spamming” one who makes Apology to the name of Christ and not to
his, leaving the reader free to read or not to read what’s written
in them?

I’ve wondered how Boeing managed to dunk that Stratoliner ever since it happened. (Talk about times I wish I was still at the Weekly — an absolute no-brainer tech piece there.) This piece from the P-I runs through the sequence of events and assures us that the plane will be restored… again. I do so love the engineers’ worldview: Yes, we can, and we will until it’s right.

From The Well Said Dept., William Bedsworth on HL Mencken: “His idea of a good breakfast was three puppies and a can of Sterno.” Ahhh.

It is so not a beautiful day in the neighborhood. It’s just not.

One of the pleasures of reading Stephen Jay Gould (something I’m going to be doing a lot of in the next few weeks, as he’s being rather prolific for a dead guy) is the joy of going places you weren’t expecting. (Including the sheer giggly glee of SJG asking himself, “Who am I, a Jewish paleontologist on a coffee break, to presume a superior knowledge of Christian tradition.” I can guarantee you he was the first person in the history of the world to conceive of that sentence.) I’d never heard of James Hampton before this, which probably tells you all you need to know about my utter lack of couth. Oh, well, all couthed now and happy.

Jack Valenti says that the piracy thing is about deeper values, and is informing college students that “duty, service, honor, integrity, pity, pride, compassion, sacrifice” and so forth are at the root of why Nice People Don’t Share FIles. Um, Jack? Those are indeed bedrock moral qualities, but we’re going to reserve their practice for God, land and the family of man, not for industry. Industries being industries, you get money instead. (Okay, “pity” may well be owed to the perpatrators of “Kangaroo Jack,” but you did that to yourself you know.) If you believe these are worthy qualities, why don’t we see more of them onscreen? Quit the flag-waving and start negotiating in good faith with hardware and software manufacturers.

Oh, yeah, definitely that’s what happened: According to Arif Mardin, the producer of Norah Jones’ album, Come Away With Me sold well because it skews older. According to the Times, “They don’t know how to download, so they go to the store and buy the record,” he said. That’s right, pal, ain’t no one here but us elderly non-downloading chickens. And the Eminem album did well for the very same reason, ’cause that’s what we’re down with here in the senior center — play that funky music, white boy, yo.

As a matter of fact, “Born In The USA” is a patriotic song, deeply so. However, I don’t think it’s operating in the way the simple-minded twists in ABC’s programming division think it is. At the beginning of what promises to be a particularly difficult week, it’s so nice to know that stupid people in suits aren’t all running amuck in Washington.

(from phone) I’m reading Todd Gitlin’s Media Unlimited right now. Thanks to my apartment building’s structural-load limitations I checked this copy out of the library. Now, as I’ve written before, one of life’s mos entertaining little variables is library-book marginalia. Sometimes you get lucky, like that scribbled salon I mentioned last year in the Liane de Peugy. Sometimes you don’t, and its name is Legion. But the Gitlin has the weirdest annotation I’ve seen yet: From cover to cover, some patron with the soul of an elderly copyeditor has inserted… commas. Masses of them. At every possible break. Was some asthmatic preparing to give a public reading? Was the book about media torrent moving too fast? I am fascinated by another unsolvable mystery.